Background: Hygiene practices among food handlers has gained considerable importance in each step of the food chain from production to preparation and serving of the food since nutritional habits have changed and out of house food consumption has increased due to the living and working conditions of today’s world. Objectives: To study hygiene practices and their associated factors among food handlers in Dubai. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 425 respondents who were selected by a systematic random sampling method and face-to-face interviewed using questionnaire structured by the researcher. Stool specimens were collected and examined for parasitic infection. Results: Overall hygienic practices score had a mean ± SD value of 81.74 ± 5.29 with lowest score for personal hygiene (71.45 ± 7.43) and highest for cooking (90.05+ 7.38). Eighty two percent of food handlers received adequate training in personal or general hygiene. Hygiene practices elaborated significant differences observed by sex, education, occupation, monthly income and by training. In stepwise logistic regression analysis those working in restaurants or housemaid and not trained were more likely to have fair to bad hygienic score. The prevalence of parasitic infection among food handlers was 2%. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that the most significant predictors of parasitic infection were male sex (OR = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.47-4.50, p = 0.001), income of 1500-<2000 AED monthly (OR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.27-4.82, p = 0.008) and one toilet at home (OR = 1.92, 95% CI = 1.17-3.15, p = 0.009). Conclusion and recommendations: This study showed good cooking practices of food hygiene among food handlers in Dubai, but with a need for improvement of personal and general hygienic practices through training and retraining of food handlers by the management of the food facilities and the local governmental authorities.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. United States foodborne disease outbreaks. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta), Accessed [February 15, 2010]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/outbreak_data.htm.